Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome yesterday's announcement by the Taoiseach that the North-South Ministerial Council will meet at the end of this month. That is a positive and necessary step forward, and I wish all concerned well in their work.

I also welcome the apology issued this week by the Chief Constable of the PSNI to investigative journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey. Some colleagues might remember that I hosted a briefing with Trevor and Barry, two respected, experienced and esteemed investigative journalists in the North. They did pioneering and crucial work with the film, "No Stone Unturned". In that film, which investigated the massacre at Loughinisland in 1994, the journalists exposed a stark, albeit not particularly surprising to many of us, level of collusion between the British security services and the people who carried out the murderous attack on the people in Loughinisland. The PSNI Chief Constable apologised and acknowledged that, as opposed to investigating the evidence that was brought forward by these journalists and pursuing those responsible for the massacre, the PSNI searched the offices of the journalists and commandeered the evidence gathered by them. That is a worrying insight into issues that still exist around legacy investigations in the North.

I am proud that the previous Seanad put through all the legislation required of this State under the Stormont House Agreement in one day. Unfortunately, issues such as the one I outlined, and many others relating to unresolved cases, cause much hurt and trauma when they come to the fore. The British Government has not moved one iota towards implementing the mechanisms that it agreed to as part of the Stormont House Agreement. The apology that was given this week was very important. Barry and Trevor did not want any of this trauma brought on them, their families or professional careers.

We must keep the victims of Loughinisland and the people who lost loved ones to the fore of our minds. To this day, like many other families, those bereaved by the massacre still campaign for truth and justice. I hosted those families for a screening of the film in Leinster House during the previous term. The film represented an important and crucial piece of investigative journalism that brought further, important evidence to the fore and the fact that it was the journalists who were arrested brought more trauma to the families of the victims of the massacre. If we are serious about defending free speech and upholding that as a fundamental aspect of democracy, while not disagreeing with anything that has been said by others this morning, we need to start by looking closer to home.